Fatal Attraction - Essay Example

?Topic:  Personality Disorder Introduction Fatal Attraction is a thriller movie released in American in 1987, which became a huge success because of its thriller theme and extra-ordinary movie script. The movie revolves around a female character played by Glenn Close, who gets obsessed with a casual affair and attempts to take revenge on the man and his family. This movie has gained importance for the psychological disorder reflected by Glenn close, where in she forces herself to get attached to the man involved with her. The abnormal mental disorder with Glenn Close is very clear in the movie as it was a psychological illness called Border line personality disorder. In this movie, this female character depicted symptoms like, impulsiveness, extreme anger ness, suicidal tendencies, instability with interpersonal relationship and fear of rejection. Borderline personality disorder is a mental illness in which the victim shows continue disturbance of personality instability, mood swings, identity crisis and self – image issues and prolonged thinking patterns. The person can remain disassociated from people and can bring about negative impact on oneself and to others to a great extend. This can bring over a disaster effect on the patient and can even turn fatal to people around them. The patient can have a distorted self image and can have uncontrollable mood swings and impulsive attitude which their loving ones can find strange and horrifying. The most of the symptoms of this disease appear in a person during adolescence or in the late adulthood. Clinical Features Reflected by Glenn Close The first symptom shown by Glenn close is her attempt to suicide, where in she tries to slit her wrist .This is a major clinical symptom of Border line personality disorder where the patient feel dejected and abandoned and tries to accomplish their goals by putting their lives on risk. The character is showing a sign of self harming which means that she is an advanced stage of border personality disorder. She is also getting obsessed with the man she had affair with, and is trying relentlessly to stalk him and his family. She is trying to harm his family members in order to take of her jealousy on them .This is a kind of mood swing which can get extreme in patients of border personality disorder. She is following the man she got involved everywhere, and this is a case of compulsion because of extreme mood swings. Moreover Glenn Close is sending a tape with abusive words to his family as part of her mental illness. She is also showing the splitting aspect where she idealizes Michael Douglas and demonizes his family. She attempts to kill his wife and kid which is indeed an atrocious act. “ The phenomenon of “splitting” signifies an inability to reconcile alternative or opposing perceptions or feelings within the self or others, which is characteristic of borderline personality”(American Psychiatric,2001,pg.47). She has also identity crisis where she thinks she is being dejected and is forcefully tries to cling on to the Michael Douglas fro love and support. The female character also has extreme mood swings wherein she abuses the man and also tries to be nice at the same time. The Character and the Personality Disorder The character in the movie Glenn Close very clearly depicted the symptoms of Border personality disorder. She is not showing a normal behavior as she threatens the man she is involved with and is intimidating him to love her. She is also performing suicidal attempts which are a chronic symptom of border personality disorder. This could be mainly due to the aloneness experienced by the character in the movie. “Aloneness is experienced as a terrifying loss of self that the patient of BPD may defend against by action or by distorting reality”(Gunderson,2008pg.11). Glenn close her is showing fear of abandonment where the victim make desperate attempts to hold on to the failed relationship. She also loses control on her feelings and become impulsive very easily and attempts on self destruction and also threaten the life of others whom seems to be enemies to her The patients of border personality disorder attempts on self destruction if they feel the circumstances are out of control for them. The female character has the mental disorder to the extreme as she calls the home of Alex and abuses him and his family very rudely. This is the reflection of the mood swings she was experiencing as the disorder getting extreme and violent. Role as a Therapist to Deal with the Character As a therapist, I have a crucial role in dealing with the patient and need to study the behavioral patterns of the patient intensively. According to (Paris,1994)“The goal of therapy is to reduce the frequency of borderline behaviors and allow the person to be more adaptive to society. The best therapeutic approaches to this disorder are still being debated. It appears that establishing a trusting relationship with a therapist who does not punish borderline symptoms has positive results”. Being a therapist I would focus on building a rigid relationship with the patient by giving her support and space to express her emotions and feelings. The patient needs to build self –confidence and trust in people around her and this can be introduced only if she interacts more with public and social groups. Medication can be prescribed to the patients for improving their mood swings and behavioral pattern. Anti –depressant and anti –psychotic drugs can be given to reduce the impulsive behavior, depression and suicidal attempts. However, if the patient is introduced to other natural treatments like meditation, mental exercises and yoga much differences can be brought about to her mental health. Since Glenn Close was showing symptoms like suicidal attempts, she needs immediate hospitalization where in she could be treated with anti –psychotic drugs and also medical injections. A good support from therapist, and a proper following of medication and developing a trusting relationship in therapist can allow the patient to recover faster and efficiently. References American Psychiatric Association, Initials. (2001). Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with borderline personality. Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Pub Gunderson, J.G. (2008). borderline personality disorder: a clinical guide. Virginia: American Psychiartic Publishing Inc. Paris, J. (1994). Borderline personality disorder:what is it, what causes it? how can we treat it? . Retrieved from http://www.jwoodphd.com/borderline_personality_disorder.htm Read More